Surrender to Love
by mmooch
Summary: **The 'Love Interest' Part of the 2013 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts FaD** series. Who knew that a 'doomed romance' competition could end like this?
1. Chapter 1: Aug 3, 2013 – Summer Lovin'

**Surrender to Love**

Summary: **The 'Love Interest' Part of the 2013 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts FaD** series. There's a superhero who needs love, and this time it isn't Buffy.

Timeline: pre-movie for BtVS; between seasons 1& 2 for Smallville.

Challenge: for the livejournal 2013 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.

Warning: not that I can think of at the moment.

A/N: This is the opening ficlet to my YA'SF (Yet Another 'Ship Fic) collection. Just like with the other collections, let me know if you have any ideas for fandoms that you'd like Buffy paired with (male or female).

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Smallville characters belong to DC Comics & WB. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

**Chapter 1: August 3, 2013 – Summer Lovin'**

**Bus Dropoff**

Buffy rolled her eyes as she stepped off the bus. Her parents were being totally unfair shipping her off to Nowheresville for the summer. They didn't even have a bus station for her to get off at; just a stop along Main Street. It's not as if she stole anything or killed someone. She only broke curfew, for crying out loud!

Couldn't they understand that the next three years of her life hinged on her accepting Taylor's invitation to the party at his house…especially since he asked her _specifically_ to come? She might as well get a pocket protector and join the chess club now.

Her more cynical side thought that they just used the curfew thing as an excuse to get rid of her so they could do whatever they called 'fun'.

She was torn out of her musings when she heard a voice call, "Buffy! Over here!"

Turning, Buffy saw her Aunt Nell waving at her from the front of a flower store. Okay, so Nell wasn't technically her aunt, but she was an old sorority sister of her mom, and they kept in touch over the years. Usually Nell and Lana went to LA to visit them, though.

Lana wasn't so bad, Buffy supposed. A little too perfect, maybe, but maybe it was impossible to be bad in Kansas. Plus, if she remembered correctly, Lana was a cheerleader last year, and maybe she could help teach Buffy some moves to assure her a spot on the squad, thereby making up for the whole 'gone for the summer' issue.

"Hey, Aunt Nell," Buffy greet the older woman once she gathered her bags and crossed the street. "Where's Lana?"

Nell's cheerful face turned somber, causing Buffy to worry that something happened to the other girl. "She's at home resting. She's having a tough time of it this spring. First her boyfriend's father died, then Whitney decided to join the Marines once he graduated. And if those things weren't bad enough, while she was driving home from dropping him off at what used to be the bus depot, she got caught in a tornado. It's a miracle she survived!"

"Oh, okay," Buffy replied, a bit disappointed. Then she felt guilty because Lana was having an even suckier summer than she was. "Umm, so what should I do with my stuff?" she asked, lacking anything else to say.

"I just have a couple more hours of work to do here, then I can take you home. If you want, you can leave your bags here and walk around town for a bit. There's a coffee shop down the street the kids like to hang out at…the Beanery."

'_That sounds like the kind of fun that's not,'_ Buffy thought. Oh well, it was better than sitting in the flower shop, attempting to make small talk with her mom's friend.

* * *

**The Beanery**

**Thirty minutes later…**

Oh god! While she might not have walked around the _whole_ town, she saw enough to know that she'd kill herself if she ever had to live in a place like Smallville. What did they do for fun around here? Count cornstalks?

Buffy sat down to enjoy the local version of a mocha when a flash of red and blue by the front door caught her eye. Ooo, call him ice cream 'cause that boy is _yummy_! She just found what she was going to do this summer…assuming he didn't have a girlfriend already.

Country Hunk said something to the auburn-haired woman next to him and made his way to the counter while she found a table. His mom, maybe? Probably.

So how should she play this? Over the top flirty? Damsel in distress? Direct approach?

She snorted, yeah right…_direct_. Then she stopped and thought it over. Wasn't the Midwest supposed to be like more simple and stuff? Maybe direct _was_ the right approach. And it's not as if she had to live here or anything if it blew up in her face.

Before he could get back to the table with the drinks he ordered, Buffy got up and met him a couple feet away; hopefully out of earshot of his mother. "Hi there, my name's Buffy and I'm visiting a friend of the family this summer, but she's not feeling well today, so I was wondering if you could show me where the fun spots are in town," she said in one breath, trying to keep from putting too much flirtiness into her voice. She didn't want to come off like a total ditz.

Clark stood there, frozen. He stared at the blonde for a few seconds, then glanced over her to look at his mom, who was clearly amused by his predicament – even if she couldn't hear exactly what the girl said to him. "Uhh…umm…"

"Or would your girlfriend mind that?" Buffy added, sounding a little bit pouty and a little bit disappointed.

"I don't have a girlfriend," Clark replied absently, still trying to figure out what to do.

Thankfully, Lex came to his rescue at that moment. "Hey, Clark," the Luthor heir greeted him with his own smirk; so he was amused, too…great. "Who's your new friend?"

"We've just met," Clark stuttered out. "This is Buffy. Buffy, this is Lex Luthor." Part of him expected her to fawn over his best friend since she probably knew the Luthor name.

"Oh yeah, LuthorCorp," Buffy remarked in a semi-dismissive tone. "We had to read about some environmental disaster blamed on them for current events last year." Then she turned back to Clark and said, "So your name is Clark, huh? Suits you," she pronounced. Then she stuck out her hand to him and said, "My full name is Buffy Summers, by the way."

Lex quirked an eyebrow at the easy way she acknowledged that she had heard of him, but went right back to flirting with Clark. She might be good for the guy…assuming she didn't turn out to be another wacko with unexplainable powers. "What brings you to Smallville, Miss Summers?" he inquired, needing to satisfy his curiosity a little.

"Just Buffy, please, and punishment," she sighed. "Mom and Dad wigged out on me 'cause I missed curfew and decided that I needed less distractions in my life…or something," she finished flippantly.

It was Clark's turn to grin now. "So you and Lex have something in common. He said he was sent here as punishment, too."

God, Buffy wanted to kiss those dimples! And did he whiten his teeth or something?

Seeing the smitten way Buffy was looking at Kent, Lex figured that her parents' plan just backfired on them in a big way. She was totally distracted by the innocent farm boy. Question was, could she distract Clark from his obsession with Lana? "Where are you staying?" he asked, not caring if he was being too pushy or not.

"With Nell Potter? And her niece, Lana," Buffy added, despite the fact that they probably already knew that little factoid.

'_Well, that could make things interesting,'_ Lex thought with another smirk.

"We live next door," Clark announced with a smile, gesturing to his mother, who had gotten up to join them.

"I thought I'd better come over to get my coffee before it grew cold," Martha teased her son.

"Oops, sorry, Mom," Clark apologized, handing her the mug. "This is Buffy Summers; she's staying with Nell and Lana for the summer."

"Martha Kent," Martha introduced herself to the young girl.

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Kent," Buffy replied politely. Then she remembered she hadn't said anything like that to Lex earlier. "Oops, and you, too, Mr. Luthor. Sorry for forgetting to say that before."

"Lex, and that's okay," he replied with a charming grin, "I realize you were _distracted_," he added with a bit of emphasis on the last word. When she looked up to glare at him, he just winked slightly and nodded in Clark's direction.

Thankfully, Clark wasn't looking at them because his mom was talking to him about some errands she wanted to run before heading back to the farm.

"Why don't you show Buffy around while I finish up. Then, if Nell doesn't have any objections, we can take her out to the farm," Martha suggested.

"Would you mind?" Buffy asked. "I'd love to drop my stuff off and get unpacked. Aunt Nell said she'd be a couple more hours at least."

"If you want, you can borrow my car to take her luggage out to Lana's," Lex offered, tossing Clark his keys.

Seeing the way her son's eyes lit up and the hopeful look he gave her, Martha sighed and said with a smile, "Just be careful."

"They look good together," Lex casually mentioned as he watched Clark help Buffy into his car.

After he walked off, Martha muttered under her breath, "They sure do."

* * *

A/N: I would write more, but I don't want to get stuck in the middle of a scene, only to find out that it's after midnight.


	2. Chapter 2: Aug 6, 2013 – Double Trouble

**Chapter 2: August 6, 2013 – Double Trouble**

Chapter Summary: **The 'Love Interest' Part of the 2013 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts FaD** series. After months of searching, Angel and his team finally find Buffy in the last place they'd expect to find her…

Timeline: AU post-_'The Gift'_ for BtVS; vague for Leverage; probably early on in season 4 for AtS, I think.

Challenge: for the livejournal 2013 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.

Warning: Not for BAngel fans!

A/N: Let me know if you have any ideas for fandoms that you'd like Buffy paired with (male or female).

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Leverage characters belong to John Rogers, Chris Downey, and TNT. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

* * *

**Secessus Nightclub**

When the AI crew barged into the subterranean bar, they were hit by a sense of familiarity. The place didn't look like Caritas, but it certainly felt like it.

A friendly, but not too friendly hostess come up to greet them, "Welcome to Secessus, your retreat from your worldly troubles! I'm your hostess, Sheila. Would you like a seat in our smoking or non-smoking section?"

"You have a non-smoking section in a bar?" Gunn couldn't help but ask.

The woman shrugged slightly and replied, "More like we have a section where people can smoke without leaving the building. Outside of that section, they can't or they have to drop $10 in the smoking jar. If they are a repeat offender, they get asked to leave."

Angel's patience was already worn thin by the months of worrying about Buffy, so this unnecessary conversation about smoking made him snap, "We can talk about this later. Right now we need to find Buffy," he growled at Gunn.

Sheila was the one who answered him, though, "Buffy? Does she know you're coming?"

"Then she _is_ here?" Angel demanded.

Knowing the limitations imposed on the nightclub patrons, Sheila nodded/gestured to the upper balcony. "She's in the VIP section. If you want, I can see if she'd like to see you."

Ignoring the subtle hint to stay where they were, Angel brushed past her, followed by his slightly apologetic team.

Rather than get upset, Sheila gestured towards a couple bouncers by the door. "Can you just follow them to be safe?" she requested.

* * *

**Upstairs**

At first Angel was going to lecture Buffy about abandoning the Hellmouth, but when he saw her in the arms of his nemesis – or one of them, anyway – he saw red. He stormed over and yanked her off her seat and yelled, "Buffy! What are you doing here, and what are you doing with _him_?"

"Angel?" Buffy muttered in confusion. She looked over his shoulder and saw a few other faces, but one she recognized. "Hey people I don't know and Wes." Then she turned back to Angel and said, "Mind getting your hand off me?"

"I want some answers!" Angel insisted.

Her smoochies partner scoffed at somebody giving Buffy orders. If she followed them, it was only because she wanted to, not because she had to. The reason he didn't jump to defend her was because he knew if he did, she beat him into the ground…even if she thought it was romantic. Still, he itched with the need to get that guy's hands off her.

"Okay then," Buffy replied, pulling out of Angel's hold. "I'm observing my club. As for the second question…well, if you have to ask, then I think it's a good thing you broke up with me all those years ago."

"Your club?" Wes asked, surprised that she could own a club in Vegas – especially a fairly popular one, based on the crowd down below them.

"Don't you know who he is?" Angel asked at the same time, but in a louder, more demanding voice.

"I got my share as a thank you for helping to get rid of an unpleasant pest," Buffy answered Wes' question first. Then she replied to Angel's, "Of course I know who he is; we've been dating for a couple months now. But I suppose I have to do the whole intro thing, huh. Angel, Wes, people I still don't know, this is Eliot. Eliot, well you heard what I called them."

Angel's face tightened in anger, "His real name is Lindsey, and he's evil!"

"Lindsey isn't evil anymore," Buffy shot back, rolling her eyes. "After he left LA, he turned over a new leaf."

"So you admit that Eliot is Lindsey?" Wes inquired after a brief moment of confusion.

"Eww, no!" she exclaimed. "That'd be like kissing my brother! Ugh!"

"But they look the same," the brunette girl said from next to the solid-looking black guy.

"You think so?" Buffy asked, disbelief coloring her words. "I just don't see more than a passing resemblance." She looked across the balcony and called out, "Hey, Linds! Got an old friend who wants to say hello to you!"

When the two men stood side-by-side, the differences were easy enough to spot. Not only was Eliot more athletically-built, he had a scruffier feel to him. Lindsey had bulked out a little, but not to the point where he matched Eliot. And he was more preppy than street thug.

Currently, both men had similar looks of annoyance on their faces, though, and both were directed at Angel – but for different reasons. Eliot just didn't like him touching Buffy; Lindsey…well, given their history, it would be shocking if he wasn't annoyed to see Angel again.

"What are you doing here, Angel? Run out of people to save in LA?" Lindsey snarked.

"I came here for Buffy. I heard a rumor that she was in Vegas, and I came to take her back to Sunnydale," Angel answered.

Despite knowing that it would get him in trouble with her, Eliot moved to stand between Buffy and Angel. "You and what army?" he asked, feeling a little like a 12 year old for resorting to that particular taunt.

"It's where she belongs! People are counting on her!" Angel insisted, not wanting to have a public discussion about the supernatural.

His concerns were immediately made moot by Buffy's response, "If they need a Slayer, they can have Faith. Or if they don't want her, they can kill her and get a new Slayer. Either way, I'm done in that place. I told Giles that if Dawn died, I was done. It's not my fault if he thought I was kidding."

"You would really quit over something that wasn't really your sister?" Angel asked.

The collective groan that came from the people who knew Buffy, as well as the two who didn't, said that he just made a monumental mistake by phrasing his question that way.

Buffy pushed Eliot aside so she could grab Angel by the throat and shove him against a pillar. "NEVER refer to Dawn as a something again! For your information, it wasn't just about her; it was about everything I've lost because of being a Slayer over the past five-six years. Losing my _sister_ was the final straw! And if leaving the Hellmouth unprotected bothers you so much, you can go sit on it!"

Gunn couldn't stop himself from chuckling. He adored Fred and would do anything for his little genius, but this Buffy chick was funny. A quick glance at his lady love showed she was at least mildly amused as well.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to have a little talk with my honey about playing the big, macho protector for me," Buffy said, pulling Eliot away.

Just to cause Angel some grief – after all, just because he wasn't evil anymore didn't mean he liked the souled vampire – Lindsey clarified Buffy's statement for them, "And by talk, she means that she'll scold him for about ten seconds, then they're going to fuck like rabbits for the rest of the night." He handed Wes a card and said, "Have a round of drinks on me." Then he walked away, humming _'Let's Get it On'_ loudly enough for the people behind him to hear.

* * *

A/N: You know Lindsey would like to torture Angel that way, even if he was redeemed. Oh, and according to latinwordtranslation dot com, 'Secessus' is the translation for 'solitary retreat'.


	3. Chapter 3: Aug 9, 2013 –Something Hidden

**Chapter 3: August 9, 2013 – Something Hidden**

Chapter Summary: **The 'Love Interest' Part of the 2013 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts FaD** series. Missing scenes from yesterday's Betrayal ficlet.

Timeline: AU season four of BtVS; any time after Deeks joined the team for NCIS:LA. Oops, made a mistake in the order of the episodes, but it works out better for my story this way.

Challenge: for the livejournal 2013 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.

Warning: not that I can think of at the moment.

A/N: Not as conversational as I usually write. Had to get some smoochies in there somehow. Let me know if you have any ideas for fandoms that you'd like Buffy paired with (male or female).

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. NCIS: LA characters belong to Shane Brennan, Shane Brennan Productions and CBS. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

* * *

'_**Hush'**_

**Streets of Sunnydale**

Callen thought the Polgara demon was weird when he first came to infiltrate the Initiative so he could search for the missing body of a Marine, but these guys, with their pale skin, hooked noses, freakish eyes and the floating? Oh, and their escaped mental patient companions? Totally the stuff of horror movies! He had to text Hetty to assure her that he was okay – if unable to speak at the moment – when she heard about Sunnydale's laryngitis epidemic.

He and his team- umm, Riley's team was out looking for answers, and hopefully protecting the people. He didn't think they were doing all that great of a job on either front. Shooting those things didn't work, and neither did any other kind of weapons they tried. Even the stun guns didn't keep them down, at least not for long.

And while on the subject of the people he worked with, Callen couldn't believe they were patrolling in uniform tonight. At least Walsh had them in civvies the day before. They could get away with it on Halloween. But if they kept doing this, they'd get caught by a local who didn't ignore the obvious. When he mentioned it, though, they insisted everything was under control.

Tonight he supposed it didn't matter too much since everyone was hiding out in their homes or apartments.

The team split up to cover more ground and he was just about to cross the street when he saw movement in the town clock tower. That seemed strange to him, because like he just thought, nobody in their right mind would be out on a night like tonight.

As soon as he got inside, one of the mental patients attacked him. That one was soon joined by another, then another, and so on. Just when he was afraid that they'd overpower him, Buffy jumped in through a boarded up window. She was a _lot_ better fighter than he thought she would be. Like Sam-level…or better. He figured that he could get some answers from her – if they survived.

A short, ferocious battle later, they ended up in the tower where the monsters had their collection of hearts. Buffy motioned at the table like she wanted him to smash something. He quickly assessed what was there, besides the hearts, he thought the ornate box was the most likely item.

After a few seconds, she started screaming at the top of her lungs. Wow, she had a lot of lung capacity. He thought she might have shattered his eardrums in addition to making the bad guys explode like really disgusting paint balls.

"Should we talk about this?" she asked after a moment of awkward silence.

Callen really wanted to, but he knew that he had to get back to the Initiative and let them know the danger was over. "Is the danger over with?" he asked, thinking somehow that she would know better than him.

"For now," she replied.

"It might be better if we both take a day or two to recover, check on our friends…then we can decide how many of our secrets we feel like sharing with each other," he suggested.

* * *

**Callen's TA office**

**The next day…**

When Buffy finished explaining what she thought she knew of what he did, Callen was surprised. She pretty much knew the whole gist of what the Initiative did, if not who all the players were.

Her comment about Gregory Laclen being his real name struck a little too close for home, but he managed to brush that off for the time being. And her crack about the euphemisms for the demons made him want to laugh; for a civilian, she had a pretty good grasp on how the military liked to replace certain words with other words or acronyms.

In exchange for confirming what she already knew – but not telling her anything she didn't – Callen found out that she was the Slayer, somebody who gave the stuff of nightmares, nightmares. She had been fighting for almost four years, and had a higher kill count than the entire Initiative put together, probably even including their captures…not that he told her that.

Callen agreed to keep her secret until she wanted to share it with the rest of the Initiative, and she agreed to wait until she caught somebody else hunting demons before she let on that she knew about the group. That way, Callen wouldn't get in trouble for spilling the beans.

* * *

'_**Something Blue'**_

A couple weeks later, something happened to make Callen wonder if it wasn't time to get out of this assignment.

The day started out like any other; he met Buffy for some tutoring and exchange knowledge concerning demon activity. The one-on-one assistance was really helping Buffy learn Russian faster than she expected.

Then they headed over to her Watcher's apartment for his demon lesson. Buffy went back to her dorm room to drop off her books, but she promised to meet him at Giles' place. He had walked her there before, so he knew his way. The good news was that on the way, he came across Hostile 17 and disposed of him for good.

However, as soon as Buffy arrived at the apartment, Callen found himself proposing to her. Then they tried to swallow each other's faces for the next couple hours. He wanted to be horrified by his actions, especially with Riley's interest in her, but he wasn't…not enough to stop anyway. As it was, he was having a hard time keeping the truth about his teammates – the ones at NCIS.

They were about five minutes away from having sex – with or without an audience – when their minds suddenly cleared.

That's when Callen learned about magic and that Willow was a practicing witch. Her spellwork left a bit to be desired, in his humble opinion.

Not that he didn't enjoy kissing Buffy; it was very pleasant. His problem was that it was against his free will. Worse, it was an accident! What kind of damage could Willow cause if she _tried_?

Then came the awkwardness when Buffy started officially dating Riley. She asked him not to say about their abortive engagement.

Callen wasn't sure if it was jealousy or lingering effects from the spell, but he just didn't think they were a good fit. Buffy was too independent, like Kensi, and while Riley professed to like strong women, Callen could see that when he found out the truth about Buffy being the Slayer, his competitive nature would kick in and wouldn't like coming in second place.

It shouldn't matter to him who Buffy dated. She was too young for him anyway. Besides, he'd be heading back to LA as soon as he finished his assignment.

Maybe if he kept telling himself that, he'd convince himself before too long.

* * *

A/N: This was part of what I wanted to have yesterday, but it felt right to save it for the Love Interest ficlet.


	4. Chapter 4: Aug 12, 2013 -Leaping to Love

**Chapter 4: August 12, 2013 – Leaping to Love**

Chapter Summary: **The 'Love Interest' Part of the 2013 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts FaD** series. Chloe finds a new hero during Dark Thursday…and a little something extra.

Timeline: post-_'The Gift'_ for BtVS; end of season 5/early season 6 for Smallville.

Challenge: for the livejournal 2013 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.

Warning: not that I can think of at the moment.

A/N: Let me know if you have any ideas for fandoms that you'd like Buffy paired with (male or female).

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

* * *

**Metropolis**

Chloe felt terror in every cell of her body when she was pulled from Lionel Luthor's car by the rioters. Why had she turned down Clark's offer to get her out of Metropolis? Just as she was about to get struck by one of the men, she was dropped to the ground.

When she looked up, she saw a woman dressed for the desert, and she was knocking the criminals unconscious. Once the immediate area was clear, she looked down at Chloe and Lionel and asked, "Is there some place that's secure you can go to?"

Lionel looked just as shocked, but he replied, "My office in the Luthor building, but it would be almost impossible to get there before we were grabbed again."

The woman closed her eyes and tilted her head as if she were listening for something. When she opened her eyes again, she pointed to the building next to them. "Is this the Luthor building you are talking about? I mean, I know it's _a_ Luthor building, but is it the one you need to go to?"

"It is," Lionel replied warily. Even though she had saved them, he was unnerved by the ease with which she fought all the people nearby. It reminded him too much of Lex's new abilities.

She nodded her understanding. "That is where the one I need to defeat is, so I will take you with me." She managed to get them to the office, but not in time to stop Zod from flying off with Lana in his arms.

While she and Lionel were working out what to do next, Chloe realized that the woman was still standing there with them. "Who are you?" she asked.

The woman seemed puzzled by the question. "I had a name once…before the Zone. What was it? Raya called me…I guess it would translate as 'Champion' in your language. For now, you may call me Champion."

"Where did you come from?" Chloe asked the next question that came to mind.

"Zod's prison," Champion replied. "When he was making his escape, I felt somebody pulling me out as well. I was finally going home. But this home needed me more, so I followed Zod here. Buffy Anne Summers!" she added abruptly.

"Excuse me?" remarked Lionel, a bit perplexed by the woman in front of him.

"My name from before. I am Buffy Anne Summers," she said with a slight smile. "Do you know where Zod might have gone so I can defeat him and save this home?"

It was a little strange that she kept referring to Earth as 'this home' instead of planet. At the moment, however, Chloe was more worried about the computer virus that threated to destroy the civilized parts of it. "To save the world, I need to stop Zod's computer virus before it shuts everything down," she told Buffy.

"Then I shall help you before I kill Zod," Buffy replied in her oddly formal speech. "May I carry you?"

Chloe barely had enough time to nod and say goodbye to Lionel before Buffy picked her up and flew out the window.

In between giving Buffy directions to Lex's mansion in Smallville, Chloe asked her about her old life and the Zone.

"My powers changed in the Zone," Buffy explained. "I was strong and fast before, but nothing like I am now. And I couldn't fly before. I don't know if it was the Zone that changed me or the portal I jumped in that sent me to the Zone."

"You jumped in a portal? Why?" Chloe demanded.

"To save _my_ home," was the obvious response. "And to save my sister from having to jump."

There was that phrase again. "You keep talking about your home and this home. What's the difference?"

"Both are Earth, but they aren't the same Earths. I may not have made it back to my Earth anyway, so it was an easy decision to come to this one to protect it from the likes of Zod."

* * *

**Smallville**

It was fortunate that Buffy was with Chloe when she tried to shut down the Kryptonian virus because it took somebody Clark-like to break the cursed thing. With the foreign signal gone, the satellite controlling Earth's systems shut down, allowing people to bring their computers back online again, albeit with a great deal of hesitation.

"Where do you want to go now, Chloe?" Buffy asked. "I can't take you with me to fight Zod."

"Umm, how 'bout the Smallville hospital? I can keep tabs on things there and you should be able to find me once you beat Zod," Chloe suggested. She surprised herself by believing that Buffy could defeat Zod, just like she believed that Clark could. A tiny part of her thought Buffy stood a better chance because she wouldn't see it as killing Lex like Clark probably did.

* * *

**Several hours later…**

When Buffy came back, she told Chloe that Clark had returned to stop Zod without killing Lex. Apparently, Raya had told him about Buffy and that he might run into her on Earth. It was that somewhat removed introduction that saved them from having a violent one. He certainly wouldn't have trusted anybody from the Zone otherwise.

* * *

**Kent farm**

**The next month…**

As a thank you for her help, Chloe helped build Buffy an identity for her new home, and the Kents invited her to stay at the farm. Martha insisted when she found out how Buffy helped them.

Chloe was spending a lot of time driving back and forth between Smallville and Metropolis during that time. Partially because she enjoyed Buffy's company and wanted to get to know her better, and partially because she had a very awkward reunion with Jimmy Olsen at the Daily Planet – the guy she lost her virginity to a couple years back. He wanted to resume their old relationship, but she felt their time was in the past. She just didn't feel that spark with him.

Speaking of sparks, the one she had for Clark was dying as well – which confused the hell out of her. Especially when she finally realized who that spark had transferred to.

"Earth to Chloe!" Lois said, snapping her fingers in front of Chloe's face. "Cuz, you gotta get over this crush you have on Smallville. If it was going to happen, it would have by now."

"Huh?" Chloe realized that the direction she was gazing at happened to be where Clark was baling hay. What Lois didn't realize was that it also had Buffy doing the same thing. "It's not what you think," she tried to explain once she figured out what Lois was talking about.

"And just who is this Buffy Summers, anyway?" Lois continued to rant, but off-topic slightly. "Is she crazy like his other girlfriends?"

Chloe had to clear one thing up immediately, "She's not his girlfriend!"

"Did I hit a nerve, dear cousin?" Lois teased. Then she noticed that Chloe sounded more upset about the idea that Buffy having a boyfriend than she did about Clark having a girlfriend. "Do you like _her_?"

"No!" Chloe instinctively denied, then thought better of it, "I don't know…maybe? She saved my life that Thursday, and it's not just about her doing that. It's… I don't know how to explain it! She's unlike anyone I've ever known before."

All teasing was gone from Lois' voice when she inquired further, "Does she like girls at all? I don't want you getting hurt. I will kick her ass across Kansas if she hurts you!"

Chloe chuckled at the thought of Lois being able to fight Buffy. "I haven't talked to her about it yet. I'm still trying to come to terms with it myself. A month ago, I thought I was strictly het-girl material, and now I'm having not-so-het-girl thoughts about Buffy?"

* * *

**On the other side of the farmyard**

"Do you think Chloe forgot that we can hear her talking from here?" Buffy asked Clark surreptitiously.

Clark looked incredibly uncomfortable talking about his best friend with the object of her new crush. "I'm guessing so. Maybe we should go over there so they stop?" he pleaded.

Buffy laughed softly, then nodded in agreement.

"Before we head over, can I ask you if you do like girls, and if you do, have you thought about Chloe that way at all?" he asked. "While Lois might not be able to stand a chance at kicking you across Kansas, I think I do."

"I never did before the Zone, but I started to care for Raya before I came here. While it wasn't love, it was definitely fondness," Buffy explained. "And what's not to like about Chloe? She's smart, and funny, and knows the truth about me." She waited until he was right near the telephone pole when she added, "Not to mention, she's totally hot!"

"What did you say to Smallville?" Lois asked once the girls stopped laughing at Clark for walking into the pole.

"Oh, I was just telling him that I thought your cousin was a complete babe," Buffy answered as Lois was taking a sip of lemonade. She smirked, proud she got two people with basically the same comment. "C'mon, Chloe, let's go grab a bite before their clumsiness rubs off on us."

Chloe's face was burning in embarrassment. "You heard me, didn't you?" she hissed quietly.

"I did," Buffy confirmed her fear. "But it doesn't change the fact that you're beautiful, smart, wickedly funny, and I'd be lucky if you agreed to go out on a date with me."

Feeling her confidence return, Chloe grinned and said, "And if you're really lucky, I may let you kiss me good night."

* * *

A/N: I liked that stopping point for how little time I have left in the day to post.


	5. Chapter 5: Aug 15, 2013 – Summer Lovin'

**Chapter 5: August 15, 2013 – ****Summer Lovin' 2**

Summary: **The 'Love Interest' Part of the 2013 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts FaD** series. Two heroes in pain help each other heal.

Timeline: between seasons 1& 2 for BtVS; between seasons 2 & 3 for Smallville.

Challenge: for the livejournal 2013 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.

Warning: not that I can think of at the moment.

A/N: Let me know if you have any ideas for fandoms that you'd like Buffy paired with (especially female).

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Smallville characters belong to DC Comics & WB. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

* * *

**Highway**

As he sped away from Smallville, Clark momentarily considered hiding out in Metropolis, but then he realized that he needed to be further from his life than that. Given his abilities, he could get pretty much anywhere on either of the Americas. He wasn't sure if he could run fast enough to run across the ocean – although maybe he could swim it. The point was moot since he didn't feel like leaving the United States just yet.

Out of nowhere, the image of a cute, blonde girl popped up in his mind. No, it wasn't his best friend, Chloe, but the girl who visited Nell and Lana last summer…Buffy Summers. She was fun, if a little shallow – and to be honest, he kind of wanted shallow at the moment. Of any female not named Lana Lang, she was the one who came closest to turning his interest.

Besides, Los Angeles sounded like it could be fun…just the place for an alien under the influence of red kryptonite. He was sure he could find her sooner or later.

* * *

**LA**

Buffy sat on the beach, staring blankly at the ocean. She wished she could get rid of the memories of the Master's lair. Since she became a Slayer less than a year ago, she wasn't used to feeling as weak as he made her feel.

Then there were the dreams. The vivid, way-too-realistic-nightmarish dreams.

She was late in coming to the Hellmouth, so the Master had succeeded in escaping and had taken over Sunnydale by the time she got there. But the 'she' that arrived was a darker, less Buffy version. In fact, almost everyone was different.

Willow and Xander were sadistic monsters – which reinforced her resolve to stake them immediately if they were ever turned; Angel was a pathetic mess who was their plaything. Giles was pretty much the same, although he was attempting to be the Slayer since she wasn't there. And there were a handful of students, some that she didn't know, helping him out.

And the town…it got so bad they had a curfew of sundown. Which probably wouldn't save the people for much longer once the Master's assembly line for human beings was fully operational. She managed to kill him again, but not before he killed her in a way she couldn't come back from with a little CPR.

Finally, there was the fact that the Master's bones didn't turn to dust like they were supposed to. That made him different, and in her opinion, different wasn't good.

All of it made her long for the comparatively worry-free summer she had in Smallville, even with the strangeness that came with it. That different was totally of the good.

_Flashback…_

Buffy was trying to be supportive and not the bitch persona she honed for Hemery High, but Lana was starting to get on her nerves. One moment she was playing the part of the dutiful girlfriend to Whitney and sending him encouraging letters at boot camp, the next she was toying – it was the only word for it, in Buffy's opinion – with Clark's feelings.

And if three days went by without Lana bringing up the fact that her parents died in a meteorite shower almost a decade ago, it was a minor miracle. Sometimes Buffy thought the necklace Lana wore constantly was affecting her mind, forcing her to live in the past.

It was the last thing that drove Buffy from the house for a walk in the fields that day. Without realizing what she was doing, she found herself heading towards the Kent farm. That family was probably the basis for all the Norman Rockwell paintings. Or at least the feeling you got from being around them. The more cynical part of her mind said nobody could have that loving of a family without a dark secret hidden somewhere.

When she got close enough, she saw Clark holding up the front end of a tractor while Jonathan changed the tire. Okay…that was different. The casual way they handled the situation told her that it wasn't a new thing for them. But nobody said anything about super-strong boy Kent, so that made her think it was a secret. She paused in her walking as she considered that.

What would happen to Clark if people knew he could lift really heavy objects like a tractor? Was that his only boosted ability? Buffy didn't consider herself as a sciencey person, but if she was intrigued by what he could do, then people who were would have a geekfest with him… And that was probably why nobody else knew, she realized.

Could she look at him the same way, knowing what she knew now? Which was another reason to keep his abilities a secret from people – how they would treat him once they knew. Other than being really strong, was he a different person than the cute boy she met at the Beanery three weeks ago? But at least now she knew somebody to open stubborn jars for her.

_End Flashback…_

Thinking of Smallville caused Buffy fingered the necklace she had made once she got back from Kansas. So it was kind of copying Lana; at least her necklace wasn't from the meteorite that killed her own parents – partially because her parents weren't dead. Her necklace looked like a normal necklace, not a piece of rock on a chain. Whoever found this meteorite decided to melt it down and mold it to look like a regular gemstone.

* * *

**A couple weeks later…**

Buffy was about to go into the nightclub when she heard a scuffle in the alley. As much as she wanted to ignore it and have a normal night out, she knew that she'd feel guilty if it was a vamp attack and she didn't save the person.

"What the hell are you?" the vampire complained, holding her bloody mouth.

Her intended victim replied in a semi-bored voice, "A little confused, but mostly annoyed. You should probably leave me alone now."

Somewhere in the back of Buffy's mind, that voice sounded slightly familiar, but she set that aside so she could quickly stake the vampire before it got away.

"Whoa! What did you do to- Buffy?" the 'victim' exclaimed.

She looked around the dumpster and saw the last person she expected to see…and in clothes she never expected to see on him. "Clark?"

"Name's Kal now," he tersely replied.

"Okaaaay," she drawled. "What are you doing in LA? Don't tell me you got bit by the acting bug! Not that you aren't hot enough to be an actor, but really?"

Kal smirked at her and said, "You think I'm hot?"

Buffy just rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah, like you didn't already know that. I made a big enough fool of myself over you last summer."

"I was the fool for not paying more attention to you," he smoothly replied. "Let's fix that by going inside and dancing. After that, you can tell me what you did to that girl who tried to bite me like a vampire."

"Oh goody," Buffy muttered, but allowed herself to be escorted inside.

* * *

**Later that night…**

It wasn't so much his look as his attitude that told Buffy something was definitely wrong with Clark/Kal/whatever he wanted to call himself now. If you looked up the definition of _selfless_, there'd be a picture of Clark next to it, and right above that, there'd be a picture of Kal next to _selfish_. Kal was totally driven by his own wants and desires. Fortunately, he had the attention span of an ant because by the time she left, he forgot to ask about the vampire.

If it wasn't for the boy she sort of fell in love with the summer before, she would have walked out of the club and forgotten the jerk after he hit on the waitress in front of her. She needed to find out what happened in the past year to change him so much. Despite her kneejerk reaction to tell him off, Buffy gave him her dad's number at the end of the night and told him to call.

Once she got there, she looked up the Kents' phone number in her address book and debated whether she should call them or not. Kal's reaction to any questions about his life in Smallville was met with hostility. On the other hand, they might be looking for him.

"Mrs. Kent?" she said once she heard the other woman's voice on the line. "This is Buffy Summers. I'm not sure if you remember me from last summer?"

"Hello, Buffy," Martha replied, disappointed again that it wasn't Clark's voice on the other end. "How are you doing?" She looked at the clock and realized how late it was. "Is anything wrong?"

"I'm fine and I'm also not sure," Buffy answered. "This may sound like a strange question, but has something happened to Clark?"

"You've seen him? Is he okay?" Martha demanded desperately.

"Physically, he's great," Buffy assured her. "But he's acting very weird. Oh, and he's calling himself 'Kal' now. You'd think he would be able to come up with a better fake name."

"That was his birth name," Martha said before she knew what she was saying.

"Huh, I didn't know he was adopted. Oh…did he just find that out? 'Cause that would sort of make sense, I suppose. One of my friends found out she was adopted a year ago and insisted on finding her birth parents," Buffy babbled.

"Clark's always known." Martha debated how much to confide in the girl she barely knew. The girl was sweet, if a bit flaky, from what she remembered of the previous year. But she sounded more grownup now…and she was trying to help Clark. Maybe just the edited version of what happened. "There was an accident. I was hurt and had a miscarriage, and Clark felt responsible for it. He decided that it would be safer for those he cared about if he left."

Huh, he had issues almost as big as her own. Buffy chuckled wryly, but softly enough that it didn't carry over the phone. They were dealing with their issues in the same way…badly. It was funny that she didn't see it when it was just her, but seeing the same thing in Clark opened her eyes to the way she was acting.

"That's tough," she murmured when she realized that Mrs. Kent was waiting for a response. "What should I do? I know he's in LA, but I don't know where he's staying. If I find out, do you want me to call you so you can come get him?"

Martha's immediate answer was yes, but then she realized that wouldn't help if Clark wasn't ready to come home. And it wasn't as if they could force him to come unless they were willing to use green kryptonite on him. "Just be his friend and don't let him push you away," she pleaded. "When he's finished grieving, maybe then he'll listen to reason and believe us when we say that we love him and want him home."

Alright, that wasn't the answer Buffy expected. Then again, knowing that he was super-strong and that his parents already knew it, they probably knew they couldn't stop him from leaving again if they did manage to take him home. "Friend-girl, it is, then," Buffy replied. "If you want to send him a letter or anything…for when he's ready, you can send it to my dad's place," she added, reciting the address for the older woman.

"Thank you, Buffy," Martha choked out emotionally, "Thank you for helping my son."

* * *

**A month later…**

Buffy was about to head back to Sunnydale in a couple weeks and she was still worried about Clark/Kal. Although he had lost some of that bad boy attitude, he wasn't to the point of being able to talk about Smallville yet.

On the plus side, trying to help him had actually helped her work through her issues with the Master…hopefully. She'd still feel better when Giles told her his bones had been cremated and soaked in holy water. That nightmare-world was way too vivid to risk anything Hellmouthy happening to bring it into reality.

It all came to a crashing halt when she caught Kal breaking into an ATM to steal cash. After thinking about it, though, she realized that she should have suspected something sooner. It wasn't as if he would have a job to earn the money he freely spent, and it there was no way he got the money from his parents – even if they had it. It was possible that his friend Lex had given him some money before he died in a plane crash, but probably not likely.

That was not a fun update to share with Martha. After the second call, Buffy was told to call her Martha instead of Mrs. Kent.

"Is he wearing a red ring?" Martha asked.

Confused by the change of subject, Buffy said, "Yeah, so?"

"The people who made the ring used a process that affects Clark like a drug. I should have thought of that sooner. When we first found out about his reaction, we destroyed the ring and he returned to normal," Martha explained without giving away the secret about kryptonite, and hoping that Buffy would buy that explanation.

Which she didn't…not entirely. Why would it only affect Clark? But that was an issue for after he wasn't committing criminal acts on a daily basis. "Sounds very Tolkienish. So I just have to drop the ring into the Fires of Mordor?" she quipped.

"You've read Lord of the Rings trilogy?" Martha couldn't help but be a bit surprised.

"Eh, kind of. More like skimmed it," Buffy admitted. "My cousin loved the series and insisted on talking about it whenever we got together, so I decided it would be easier to try and read it. She didn't tell me it was as long as the encyclopedia. But back to Clark's ring…I break it and he's Clark again?"

"It isn't as easy as it sounds," Martha warned. "And I don't know if the effects will wear off as fast as they did before since he's been wearing it for so long."

"Still worth a shot. Wish me luck," Buffy said.

Worried that Buffy could be in danger from Kal if he found out what she was doing, Martha tried to stop her. "Buffy-" was all she got out before she heard Buffy say goodbye and hang up.

Buffy knew that Martha would try to talk her out of breaking the ring because of Kal's strength and her apparent lack of it. She wasn't sure if Slayer strength matched whatever gave him his strength, but she figured she could at least put in a good enough effort and at least break the ring.

Before Clark arrived to take her out, she decided to slip on her Kansas necklace for luck.

* * *

**Buffy's driveway**

Kal got out of the car that he purchased with stolen ATM money and walked up to the door of the only girl that kept his attention for longer than a couple hours. There was something about her that drew him. The tiny part of his brain that was still Clark saw the same look of pain in her eyes that lived in his own, but Kal refused to accept that as the reason for _his_ attraction to her.

Buffy opened the door with a smile that made his heart flip a little. "Kal!" she greeted him warmly. "I was wondering if you would mind a little change in plans for tonight?" she asked with an adorable pout that made him lean down and give her a toe-curling kiss. When she pulled back, she quipped, "Is that a yes or your attempt to change my mind?"

"Whatever you want, Buffy," he replied sincerely, almost sounding like the old Clark.

Knowing that she'd probably end up fighting him and wanting to limit the property damage or possible injuries to others, Buffy needed to take him to a remote location. "I was thinking about a picnic on a quiet, little beach?" More like deserted, but he didn't need to know that.

"Sounds…intimate," Kal commented with a bit of a leer. "Fine with me."

* * *

**The beach**

As they ate the dinner, Buffy checked for signs that they weren't alone. When she assured herself they were, she grabbed his hand that had the red ring on it.

Assuming that something else was going on, Kal said, "You know, if you wanted for some alone time, I could have gotten us a hotel room."

"I just want to say thank you for this summer, Kal," Buffy replied, "And also for making this easier for me by being a pig." With her other hand, she grabbed his wrist so she could force the ring off his finger.

When he realized what she was doing, Kal tried to pull away, not caring if he hurt her in the process. To his shock, he couldn't. He felt weak – at least for him he felt weak. "What have you done to me?" he demanded.

"I'm saving you from this ring," Buffy answered. "Not sure how a ring can drug you, but I was told to destroy it, so I'm going to do that." She picked up a nearby stone and smashed it down on the stone; she would have the gold melted down later.

Since she was looking at the ring and not directly at Kal, she only a flash from the corner of her eyes. Then he grabbed his chest and cried out in pain.

"Kal, are you okay? I'm sorry, I didn't think this would hurt you!" she exclaimed.

He fell on his back and started spasming. Panicked, Buffy ripped open his shirt in case she had to do CPR. God, wouldn't that be ironic? She started her summer with needing CPR and might end it by doing giving it to somebody else. When the shirt was open, she was horrified at what she saw on his chest. Somebody or something had branded him.

The strange thing was that it was glowing…and disappearing? What the Hellmouth was going on here?

When he opened his eyes, he whispered hoarsely, "Buffy?"

Some instinct told her to answer with, "Clark? Is Kal gone now?" Holy crap, had he been possessed before?

"Not exactly," Clark said with a wry chuckle. "He's the part of me that does what he wants without worrying about the consequences."

"Sounds like we have a lot to talk about," Buffy suggested, flipping her hair out of her face. A piece of it was caught on her necklace and pulled it out of her shirt.

"That's a pretty necklace," Clark remarked, not quite up to talking about anything serious yet. "Not sure I've seen a stone that shade of blue before."

Buffy wasn't entirely surprised at his avoidance, so she let it happen. "That's strange, seeing as how I got it from Kansas. It's one of those meteorites from the shower years ago."

She was shocked at the panicked look Clark gave her at that news.

* * *

A/N: Man, this went longer than I thought it would!


	6. Chapter 6: Aug 18, 2013 – Evil Twins

**Chapter 6: August 18, 2013 – Evil Twins**

Chapter Summary: **The 'Love Interest' Part of the 2013 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts FaD** series. After months of healing, Buffy finds a man to help her learn to love again.

Timeline: AU post-_'The Gift'_ for BtVS; vague for Leverage.

Challenge: for the livejournal 2013 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.

Warning: OOCness on Buffy's part, but really, who's going to complain when it gets her smoochies with Eliot?

A/N: Let me know if you have any ideas for fandoms that you'd like Buffy paired with (male or female).

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Leverage characters belong to John Rogers, Chris Downey, and TNT. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

* * *

**Secessus Nightclub**

**6 months after **_**'The Gift'**_**…**

"I'm gonna go to the back and get changed so I can go home," Buffy called out to her replacement behind the bar. She was a bartender at one of those gimmick bars; part dancer/part cocktail artist – or whatever the term was.

Maybe she should have felt guilty for doing this instead of patrolling, but after the year she just went through, she just couldn't drum up the emotions to care. As strange as it seemed, this helped her to reconnect to the world in a way that nothing she tried before could. She had even started to check around Vegas for vamp nests to take out. Not that she had any plans to become the Hellmouth's Slayer again, but she'd help out where she could.

As for jobs, it was a lot better than being a waitress at a greasy diner, and _worlds_ better than Doublemeat. Sure, some of the guys tried to get grabby, but the bouncers were good about stopping it from going too far. She didn't mind letting them handle it, either. Only one person here knew about her past, and that was her boss, Lam – or Lambykins when she was feeling playful with him. Despite his past, she liked the guy, and he treated her like the little sister he never had. It was nice to have family again.

When she walked into the secure women's locker-room, Buffy's eyebrow went up to see a blonde stranger digging into the uniform pile.

"Uh, can I help you?" she asked.

Parker looked up, startled by the intrusion. She quickly used the lie they had come up with and said, "Just started tonight and looking for a clean uniform."

Seeing as how Lam kept her informed about the new hires, Buffy seriously doubted that. "Yeah, see…I don't believe you. I'm gonna have to take you to my boss' office, and let him decide what to do with you," she said, putting enough steel in her voice to make sure the other woman didn't think she had any choice.

"You're taking me to the office, _now_?!" Parker emphasized strangely.

That made Buffy's spidey-sense tingle. "Yeah," she replied suspiciously.

* * *

**Hallway**

They only got a few steps away from the changing room before they were stopped by another stranger – a brunette this time. She went up to Buffy and using some weird foreign accent asked, "Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the parking lot?"

Knowing that the parking lot was in the opposite direction, and given the odd timing of the encounter, Buffy's bullshit meter spiked hard. "Hmm, this is interesting. Friend of yours?" she asked her blonde 'prisoner'.

Parker's eyes widened in shock at two of them getting caught by the same person. That almost never happened. "What? No! I don't know who she is!"

Buffy immediately grabbed Sophie with her left hand while keeping a tight grip on Parker with her right. "Guess then you won't mind getting to know her while you wait for my boss to talk to you both. C'mon," she ordered them as she started down the hallway again.

"Pretty strong for such a tiny girl," Sophie commented, trying to give Eliot a heads up that the person who caught them could be a fighter.

Glaring at the brunette, Buffy growled, "Do you _want_ your arm to get broken? Calling me a 'girl' in that condescending voice is a good way to go about it if you are. Let's go see who else we'll find in the office… You know, the one you're trying to keep me away from?" It annoyed her that it took this long for her to figure out what they were up to. She should have gotten it from the 'office, now' comment from earlier.

* * *

**Lam's office**

Opening up the door, Buffy saw somebody most obviously not Lam playing around with his computer. Given the other two intruders, she decided to act first and ask forgiveness later if she was wrong. She let go of the brunette just long enough to pick up a baseball from a nearby display stand and throw it at the black guy's head to knock him out for a few minutes.

Then she reached into her pocket and grabbed two zipties to secure the women so she dealt with the guy messing with Lam's computer. Something told her they were a slippery group, so she secured each limb separately. After they were all tied up, she began her interrogation, "Is there some reason you're trying to break into my boss' office? I don't like it when people try to hurt him."

None of them said a word. She sighed and said, "Okay, if you don't want to tell me, you can always tell him or the police."

Buffy saw the slight widening of their eyes and felt the tiniest breeze from behind her, telling her that somebody just came in through the door. Since they didn't announce themselves, she assumed it was another intruder. Quickly pivoting on her foot, she grabbed the new one by the throat and pinned him against the wall.

"You know, it isn't nice to sneak up on a girl," she mock-complained.

Eliot was stunned at her moves. "How did you-?" he managed to choke out.

"I'm just good that way," she quipped before studying him a bit closer. "You know, you kind of remind me of my boss – 'cept you're scruffier and have that dangerous, sexy vibe. He's more like a preppy hottie – with just a hint of danger to him. Whereas _you_ practically have billboard sign over your head, screaming 'Danger'! Maybe you're his evil twin or something," she theorized, thinking about the different ways it could be true.

Then she heard a tiny voice talking. Huh, why had she missed that? Man, she was off her game tonight. Lam was never going to let her live that down…if he found out. Twisting the hottie's arms so they were together behind his back, she lowered him to the ground so she could kneed on a sensitive pressure point that would keep him down while she found out how many more there were in this invasion.

Buffy pulled the listening device out of Eliot's ear and put it next to her head. She heard somebody giving the team instructions and saying that he'd figure out a way to rescue them. She looked at the gobsmacked team and asked, "How do I talk back to him?"

Being the most pragmatic of the bunch, Eliot knew that the only way to get out of this with minimal damage was to let Nate come and try to bullshit the woman into either helping or getting out of their way. Maybe a little cooperation would help sway her to their side. "Put it in your ear and just talk," he explained.

"Hey, Mr. Voice-in-my-head," she cut him off, "If you don't want to pick up your people at the local police department, I suggest you get your butt over here and talk to me face-to-face."

Feeling the strength in the guy beneath her, Buffy used double zipties to keep him in place. Then she waited…

* * *

**A few minutes later…**

There was a knock on Lam's door and the bouncer stuck his head inside to tell Buffy she had a visitor. When he saw the people tied up, he raised an eyebrow, looked at her to see if she had everything under control, then escorted the man into the room. "I'll check on you in five," he promised on his way out.

"He's so protective of me and the boss," Buffy remarked fondly. "I'd hate to tell him that he has to break your legs because you tried to hurt either one of us."

Nate took a deep breath, then decided to risk the con by telling the truth. Who knows, it might help; stranger things could happen. "Your boss isn't a good guy. We have evidence that he uses blackmail and extortion to force people to help him, then he destroys their lives anyway."

"Lam's had a tough life and has made some _monumentally_ bad choices in the past, but he's not evil anymore," Buffy defended the man who kept her from destroying herself after Dawn's death. He was looking for redemption, and he decided to start by helping the Slayer.

Once he convinced her that Dawn wouldn't want her throwing her life away, he shared his life story with her, warts and all. A part of her – the cynical part – thought he only helped her so that she'd side with him if the time ever came where he needed a Slayer on his side. But she didn't have any better place to be, so she stuck around for a few days. That grew into a couple weeks, which grew to six months.

After all that, she thought of him as the big brother she never had. She would defend him like she would defend any other family.

Unfortunately, she couldn't save him from an unscrupulous business owner in Las Vegas. As strong of a Slayer as she was, she couldn't go up against the likes of Wolfram & Hart. If Lam didn't play the front man for Zeke's operations, Zeke would let Evil Inc. know where their prodigal lawyer ran off to.

If that happened, Lindsey Anson McDonald – Lam for short – would be shoved into a hell dimension where they would torture him for months or years.

"Lam?" Nate asked, confused by the name.

"My boss," Buffy clarified. "Who's office we're in right now."

"Just look at our evidence. You'll see the pain he's caused for years along the strip," Nate urged.

"Years?" Suddenly a light went off in her head and she figured out who their real target was. "Then you have to be talking about Zeke. He's the one that forced Lam into being his legit 'partner' so he can do his illegal stuff in the shadows. If you want to take that asshole down, I'll be more than happy to help you…providing you find a way to keep him from hurting Lam. Even better, with the majority of his public businesses being in Lam's name, it'll make it easier to dismantle a good portion of his empire."

"Assuming that your boss goes along with it," Nate said. Her easy turn in attitude was a little disconcerting.

"He'll do it," Buffy replied confidently. "Anything to be free of Zeke."

* * *

**Days later…**

Fortunately for Lindsey, Zeke was more used to blackmailing regular humans, or he would have had better contingency plans for telling Wolfram & Hart about their missing lawyer. A quick break in at a bank to steal the contents of a safety deposit box, and some delusion-causing drugs administered to the man before he was turned over to the police and nobody believed anything he tried to claim about anybody.

Buffy and Eliot worked together to deal with Zeke's enforcers, and dismantle the parts of his illegal operation that Lindsey and Buffy knew about.

More than once, he caught her checking him out. Given the way she talked about her boss, he didn't think she had similar thoughts about Lindsey. And since they looked so much alike, he was curious. After one particularly exciting fight with some of Zeke's crew, she was giving him that hungry look again, so he figured the time to ask his question was right. "What's different between me and Lindsey? You never look at him like he's a steak and you haven't eaten in days…not like you are looking at me right now."

She stalked over and got into his personal space. He fought to keep his body from reacting, but if she kept it up much longer, he'd lose that fight. "He's my brother by circumstance. While you two look similar, you are different men. He's brains and you're brawn. I happen to find brawn sexy," she finished, running her hand along his arm.

"Good enough for me," he said, leaning down to kiss her passionately.

"Let's go to my place," she suggested breathlessly between kisses.

"Great idea," he agreed, driving her nuts with the kisses he was giving her neck and collarbone. If he kept that up, they wouldn't make it to the car, much less her apartment.

With a little bit of erratic driving – and a lot of luck that they weren't pulled over for it – they finally made it. The next day they could look for the buttons of the clothes they ripped off on their way to the bedroom.

A while later, Buffy laid back on her sheets trying to catch her breath. "I still think you're the evil twin," she said with a satisfied grin. "Thank goodness I like my men with a little darkness in them."

* * *

A/N: Yeah, she let her slutty side out and slept with a guy she barely knew, but I know _I _can't blame her.


	7. Chapter 7: Aug 21, 2013 – Her First Love

**Chapter 7: August 21, 2013 – Her First Love**

Chapter Summary: **The 'Love Interest' Part of the 2013 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts FaD** series. After The First is stopped, Buffy finds her first true love again.

Timeline: starting with AU _'End of Days'_ for BtVS (NO COMICS); AU pre-series for Bones. Move the Buffy timeline to match up with the Bones one.

Challenge: for the livejournal 2013 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.

Warning: Not terribly Scooby-friendly.

A/N: This does go AU in that something that happened on the show happens differently here. Let me know if you have any ideas for fandoms that you'd like Buffy paired with (male or female).

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Bones characters belong to Hart Hanson and Fox Network. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

* * *

**Vineyard**

Buffy was enjoying the look of fear in Caleb's eyes as she walked towards him with the weapon she 'Queen Arthured' out of the stone when The First – wearing her face again – started talking, "…And her friends are in trouble. Faith go boom."

Caleb stopped to look at his master, giving Buffy a prime opportunity she wasn't about to pass up. While his attention was split, she decided to go tried and true on him, slicing his neck clean through. She could barely feel the resistance with her new toy.

"Call that payback for the people you hurt during my last visit," she snarked to the corpse.

"You're still behind with the ones my followers just took out," The First taunted, reminding Buffy she had people to try and save.

As she ran out of the building, Buffy realized she had no clue where Faith and the others were – or even who the 'others' with her were. She paused for a moment to think about it logically. Okay, the last place they wanted to keep track of was…the high school! With that, she took off full speed again, quickly dispatching any Bringers that crossed her path along the way.

* * *

**Sunnydale High School**

The higher than normal concentration of Bringers and Turok-Han that she found at the abandoned school made Buffy believe she was in the right place, although the phrase The First used indicated there was supposed to be some kind of explosion.

She fought her way down to the Seal of Danzalthar where she forced Andrew into confessing that he murdered Jonathon and shed real tears of remorse to close the seal temporarily. It surprised her when she got there with no sign of Faith or anybody else.

Where could they be? Maybe they were at the house?

Or maybe The First tried to bluff her so she'd leave without killing Caleb with her new weapon. If that was the case, It failed miserably.

Before she could wonder at that longer, more Bringers and Turok-Han trapped her in the Seal room. She managed to kill them all, but not without taking some serious damage. At one point, an uber-vamp threw her on top of the seal. Unfortunately, her weapon landed underneath her and pierced her stomach. Ignoring the pain, she used the stake end to kill the monster, who happened to be her last opponent.

Then her eyes widened in fear.

Blood was spilling on the Seal.

But to her shock, instead of opening, she saw the seams of the Seal soldering themselves together, using her blood as the filler agent. Okay, that wasn't what she was expecting.

How much of her blood would it take to solder the whole thing?

What had she told Andrew? Good people might die…even her? Was it worth the cost if it saved the world? Would it be better to find a different way to stop The First?

The problem with that was that she didn't know if they would find another way…or even if she was still part of the 'they' side anymore. Finally deciding that she didn't want to die just yet, Buffy tried to climb out of the hole, only to slip and fall back. The pain that shot through her body froze her in place, blood seeping onto the Seal.

A few minutes later, Spike came running into the room, following Buffy's smell and the trail of dead baddies she left behind her. If his heart beat at all, it would have stopped at the sight of her lying on the Seal with her blood spreading across the metal. "Buffy!" he shouted. He raced over and picked her head up to place on his lap. He couldn't hear her heart beating.

The thought of her being dead again caused him to sob in grief. Their relationship – whatever it was – had been the very definition of tumultuous, but he honestly did love her. If only had had thought to get his soul back before he had tried to rape her, maybe they would have had a chance together.

His tears mixed with Buffy's blood, causing the Seal to glow.

Alarmed, he picked her body up and moved it out of the way. No way would her body fall into hell if he had anything to say about it. But instead of opening again like he expected, he thought he saw a shimmer – like glass – coat the top of the Seal. He reached out to touch it, but received a shock that made the taser guns the Initiative gits used feel like joy buzzers.

He wasn't sure what had happened, but at the moment, he didn't care. The woman he loved was dead because he failed to stay at her side.

When he went to pick her up again, he noticed that she was still bleeding. Being a vampire, he knew that blood can flow out of a body due to gravity, but it didn't pulse out like hers was. A pulse meant she was still alive! But barely, given how long it was between beats.

Another thing he knew from being a vampire was how to do blood transfusions. Granted, he knew that so he could keep a victim alive longer while he tortured them, but knowledge was knowledge and if it could save Buffy, who cared where he got it?

He got her out to the parking lot, found the nearest vehicle and placed her body in the passenger seat, trying to keep her lower half above her heart so she wouldn't lose any more blood. Then he hotwired the car and sped to the nearest blood bank. Because of who he was, he knew that Buffy was a universal blood recipient, so all he had to do was find some safe blood to give her – meaning it was still sealed and refrigerated.

* * *

**Several angst-filled hours later…**

Spike waited impatiently for any sign that Buffy would recover from her injuries. He got her started on a blood transfusion, then stitched her up while she was still unconscious. Then he waited…and waited…and waited.

It was just after dawn before she started to move again on her own.

"Slayer?" Spike whispered hopefully. "You in there?"

"You expecting somebody else?" Buffy croaked.

He got her a cup of water and helped her take a few sips before making her lay back down on the chair. "I've got a bone to pick with you, Slayer," he complained. "When I told you about the weapon that the Preacher was hiding, I didn't think you'd go after it alone."

Buffy was still groggy from her injuries, so all she managed was to mutter, "Couldn't risk anyone else. Too many hurt the first time." Then she fell back asleep.

* * *

**That evening…**

It took another long nap before Buffy was able to get up and move. The first thing she demanded to do was go the house and check on the others. Spike fought her on that until she explained what The First said to her at the Vineyard.

"It probably was just messing with you," Spike commented.

"Probably," Buffy allowed, "but I'd never forgive myself if I didn't make sure. Besides, they need to know about the two-sided doodad that killed Caleb and the funky thing my blood did to the Hellmouth Seal."

Spike looked chagrined. "Oh yeah, that reminds me…something else strange happened down there when I found you. See, I thought you were dead and I _might_ have shed a tear or two – in a manly way, of course."

"Of course," she repeated with a warm grin.

"Anyway, when my tears hit the blood on the Seal, there was a little light show and now it has a force field that gave me the biggest shock of my life, electrically speaking," Spike finished.

Buffy's expression turned into confusion. Blood and tears again? "Even more reason to see them and explain what happened to us."

"Alright, but one harsh word from them, and I'm dragging you out of there," Spike growled. It still made him angry how they tried to brush off their actions when he came back with Andrew from the mission.

* * *

**1630 Revello Drive**

The house they walked into was a somber one…at least until the first person saw Buffy standing in the doorway.

"It's your fault they're dead!" Willow screamed.

"Who's dead?" Buffy asked.

Giles moved in between them to keep Willow from attacking Buffy, either physically or magically. "Faith and several of the Potentials. They went to check on an armory that The Bringers were guarding. Only Kennedy managed to escape, but she died shortly after she arrived from her wounds."

"An armory?" Buffy repeated to herself. "How would I have known to look for an armory to help them? What was The First's game in telling me that?"

"The First told you they were dying?" Giles inquired coldly. "And you did nothing to stop that from happening?"

"I didn't know where to look!" Buffy defended herself. "When It told me that Faith was going to be in an explosion, I figured you guys went to the Hellmouth, seeing as how that's what you thought It was guarding."

"When you realized you were wrong…_again_, why didn't you come here?" Xander demanded, putting his arm around Willow to comfort her.

Spike had enough by that point; he was about one and a half seconds away from following through on his earlier threat to drag Buffy out – against her will if necessary. "She was too busy dying herself!" he snapped at the group.

"I would have, too, if Spike hadn't come along to fix me up," Buffy added. "He got me to a medical place, stitched me up and gave me some blood to replace the stuff I lost."

"So you're a vampire now?" Xander asked in horror and backing away.

Buffy rolled her eyes and said, "I'm inside without an invitation. He gave me blood using a needle and donated blood."

"Still, you shouldn't have run off without giving us some way to get ahold of you," Giles chided.

Spike moved towards Buffy, but she held a hand up to stop him. "There'll be no dragging, but I'll go on my own in just a minute," she told him. Then she quickly recapped what happened at the Vineyard and on the Hellmouth. "I'll call Angel's business every week for updates on Dawn. If she decides that she wants to be with me instead of here, I'll come for her. Otherwise, I'm through," she finished, glaring at the people she fought and died for – more than once – for the past several years.

Dawn's voice came from behind her, full of anger and hate. "That will never happen, so don't bother!" she spit, moving to stand next to Willow and Xander. "We all could have died because you couldn't get past your own pride and work with a team."

"If that's the way you feel-" Buffy started to say.

But Dawn cut her off, "It is."

Buffy nodded and moved towards the door for the last time.

* * *

**A year later…**

Buffy smoothed out her clothes and checked her hair again for the umpteenth time, causing Spike to say with a touch of annoyance, "You're bloody perfect already. You best get moving before everyone thinks you've changed your mind!"

The last twelve months had been wonderful for Buffy and a roller coaster for Spike. Once she was away from those ungrateful bastards – his words, not hers – she decided to look up an old friend. When Spike first met him, he snorted in disbelief.

Apparently, they were an item once upon a time, and even though he was involved with somebody else when Buffy came back into his life, it didn't take long for him to realize that he couldn't risk losing her a second time. Spike needed to leave for a few months after they started dating because it hurt too much to see her with somebody else, especially him.

But then she called and invited him to a party, and by that time, his pain had lessened enough so that he could be sincerely happy for her. Didn't stop him from threatening the ponce, though.

Now they were making it official; in about ten minutes, he would be giving her away to another man forever.

* * *

**After the reception…**

The wedding went by like a dream for Buffy, and before she knew it, she was Mrs. Buffy Summers-Booth. She considered taking his last name only, but Buffy Booth just sounded too weird to her. She was glad they decided to keep the wedding ultra-small because if they had gone big, it would have been painfully obvious how empty her side of the church would be.

She had made some friends in DC since finding Seeley again, but it wasn't the same as having family there. Tears threatened to gather in her eyes, but she wiped them away because today was a day for celebration, not sadness.

Her new husband wrapped his arms around her and whispered, "It's their loss. I could tell you were thinking about them," he answered her unasked question.

"You are so good to me," she said with a smile.

"As long as you're naughty for me later," he replied leeringly.

Buffy scoffed, "Okay, no more hanging out with Spike for you! He's rubbing off on you too much!"

They were just about to get into the car to drive to the hotel when they heard a voice call out, "Buffy! Wait up!"

"Angel?" she gasped when she saw who it was coming towards them. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to bring you back to Sunnydale where you're needed," he said, not even looking at the man behind her.

"Uhh, I think not!" Buffy retorted. "I have a life here, in case you didn't notice my dress. Besides, they have a Slayer, don't they?"

"She isn't as good as you," Angel answered. Then he looked at her husband and reared back. After a couple seconds, he started laughing.

"Something funny?" Seeley asked in an unfriendly tone.

"Probably not to you," Angel snarked, "but it's funny to me…and a little sad."

Buffy shared a look of confusion with Seeley before asking, "What are you talking about?"

"C'mon, Buffy, you know why you married this guy," Angel said.

"Yeah, because I love him," she replied.

"No, because he looks like me!" Angel corrected her.

"Ego much?" She paused and then shrugged. "Okay, so technically he looks like you, but that's only because you're older than him. If you are suggesting that I fell in love with him because of that, you have it backwards. I grew up with Seeley until my freshman year in high school, and we dated for most of middle school. Dad got a transfer to California, so we moved away. I kind of went boy-crazy at Hemery and when I moved to Sunnydale and saw you, I saw somebody who looked like I imagined Seeley would look like in about ten years."

Angel felt like he had been punched in the stomach. "Why didn't you or Dawn mention this before?"

"And say what? You remind me of my ex-boyfriend a little and I'd like to go out with you?" she asked rhetorically. "You were already being a pain about the age issue. And it's not as if I wasn't ever fond of you…or even in love with you at one point. I wouldn't have slept with you just because of the resemblance," Buffy said.

"Hey, too much information about your past," Seeley interrupted. "Can we just say good night and get on with our honeymoon?"

"Okay," Buffy agreed. "Tell you what, Angel, you tell Spike about whatever needs me personally, and if you convince him that I have to go, then I'll postpone my honeymoon to go. But it had better be at least Glory-level bad or worse," she warned him. "I've been looking forward to this honeymoon for months now."

"So what's the bad news, Poof?" Spike asked, having snuck up behind Angel so he could defend Buffy and her new hubby if need be. Or provide them the distraction they needed to get into their car and drive away from the brooding menace.

* * *

A/N: Okay, not Angel-friendly either. When somebody suggested Booth, though, I had to give them this backstory because it's always either Booth is Angel's Shanshu human identity or Buffy's replacing Angel with his lookalike, Booth. I wanted her to love Booth first and Angel second.


	8. Chapter 8: Aug 24, 2013 –Her Rebound Guy

**Chapter 8: August 24, 2013 – Her Rebound Guy**

Chapter Summary: **The 'Love Interest' Part of the 2013 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts FaD** series. Buffy was in Hell a little longer than was shown…and she met somebody else down there.

Timeline: Starting the summer between seasons 2 & 3 for BtVS; post-season 3 for GG. Events of season 3 are compacted to fit my storyline.

Challenge: for the livejournal 2013 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.

Warning: AU and possibly a little OOC. Not anti-Scooby, but not pro, either.

A/N: Let me know if you have any ideas for fandoms that you'd like Buffy paired with (male or female).

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. Gilmore Girls characters belong to WB and Amy Sherman Palladino. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

* * *

**Sunnydale**

**A week after she returned…**

Buffy was relieved that she didn't come back to the Hellmouth until she had fully healed from her injuries when she rescued the slaves in Ken's Hell. Since she'd been back, life seemed to be going non-stop on her.

Thankfully her mother welcomed her back with open arms, and accepted the changes in their relationship as well as could be expected. Buffy wasn't so sure she could say the same thing for her friends…and they didn't know everything her mom knew. She was going to tell them, but there never seemed to be a good time to share her news.

If their 'welcome home' dinner had been what her mom envisioned – assuming it hadn't been moved to the Bronze when Giles found some questionable masks at the house when he came over to pick up the undead cat – she might have opened up and told them then. But they decided to throw a party with a bunch of people that she didn't know, then proceeded to ignore her for most of the night until they caught her leaving to go home.

Apparently leaving a party she didn't want to be at was rude, and they vented all their anger for everything in the past nine months or so at her until she saw something on the dance floor and cut them off. "Sorry to interrupt your little tirade, guys, but a girl's about to become vamp chow. If you don't mind, I think I'll save her instead of listening to how I ruined all your lives," she snarked, shocking them that she would be so curt with them.

Turned out that the girl didn't need saving, seeing as how she was the new Slayer, Faith. Having her there did have one bright point, though. The gang went back to ignoring her so they could fawn over Faith – except for Cordy, who didn't care for any other female who stole attention from her.

Turned out Faith was in Sunnydale because some big bad of a vamp killed her Watcher and was coming after her. A little dual-slaying therapy and a giant beam later, he was a pile of dust and Faith was breathing easier.

Of course that's when Angel had to come back and cause stress for Buffy. She spent months saying goodbye to him after sending him to hell, only to have him reappear the night before while she was on patrol. Knowing that he was in Acathla's hell for months of Earth-time, she could only guess how long it was for him there – assuming the time moved differently between the dimensions. Even if he was Angel when he got there, who was in his body now that he was back?

Knowing that the only place that had the equipment and privacy needed to keep him captive was the mansion, she dragged him there and shackled him before looking for some clothes for him to wear.

Now she had to go to Giles' apartment – since she was still banned from school grounds by Snyder – for a Scooby meeting. Hopefully, the others would leave before too long so she could talk to Giles about how Angel might have escaped.

* * *

**Giles' apartment**

Unfortunately, her plan fell apart once she arrived. Turned out that Xander happened to see Buffy at the mansion – although she had no clue what he was doing there in the first place – and witnessed her manhandling a naked Angel. But he left before seeing the rest of the scene and just assumed that she was hiding him and getting groiny with him again.

They decided she needed an intervention to save her from her 'Angel fixation'. She stood there listening to them while fighting the urge to roll her eyes.

Giles just finished telling her that she must have known that hiding Angel's return from them proved that she knew what she was doing was wrong.

Thanks to the changes she went through during the summer, her first reaction was to stand up for herself instead of feeling bad for something that was outside her control. She returned Giles' glare and snapped, "He only showed up last night while I was on patrol! When exactly was I supposed to tell you? Wake you all up at 3 in the morning for a Scooby meeting? I chained him up and snuck into the library to research how he could have come back. Then I came here at your command."

Xander snorted in disbelief. "Oh, and it was just a coincidence that he was naked and pawing at you?" he asked.

This time Buffy couldn't stop from rolling her eyes. "That's the way he was when I found him," she retorted.

"Well, even if you didn't do anything last night, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before you have sex with him and turn him into a monster again, putting us all in danger," Cordy complained.

Buffy started laughing at that. They were so completely off base now, but she supposed she couldn't blame them…entirely, since they didn't know the whole story. They probably would in a few hours, though, if her guess was accurate.

Willow pulled the classic intervention line to bring things back to a more neutral place, "Buffy, I feel that when it comes to Angel, you can't see straight. And that's why we're, we're all gonna help you face this."

Then there was a knock at the door, and Buffy wondered if it was her surprise or Faith coming to join the intervention. She went over and opened it up to find the person she was hoping to see – nothing against Faith. "Hey there, you," she murmured with a smile.

"Hey back, beautiful," he replied before pulling her in for a breathtaking kiss.

All of Buffy's attention focused on him until she was physically separated from him by Giles.

"Who is this young man?" Giles inquired, feeling extremely confused at his Slayer's behavior. Wasn't she in love with Angel?

The young man in question held out his hand in an attempt to be polite to somebody who was important to Buffy and introduced himself, "Jess Mariano," he paused for a second, wrapped his arm around Buffy and added with more than a hint of angry glee at the bombshell he was about to drop, "…Buffy's husband."

Buffy ignored the gasps of the others to ask him, "How did your meeting with your dad go?"

Having overheard most of the conversation through the open window by the front door, Jess replied, "Better than you and these guys, but not real good."

"So we're down to plan C now?" Buffy asked, still focused on her husband.

Jess looked confused for a moment, then checked, "Plan C? Was that the Cancun plan or the 'go back to Stars Hollow and beg my uncle for another chance' plan?"

"You're _married_?!" Willow's scream interrupted their conversation.

"Isn't that a bit rash?" Giles added before a horrible thought came to him. "You aren't pregnant, are you?"

"A world of no!" Buffy assured him. She shrugged and said, "We literally went to hell and back together. It tends to bond people a little faster than normal. When we got out of hell, I was hurt and he was the one to help patch me up and keep me company until I was 100% again. He even studied with me so we could take our GED together. To celebrate, he proposed, I said yes and we found a chapel to marry us. We decided that life was too short to wait any longer."

"What do you mean, 'got out of hell'?" Giles asked over the other questions the Scoobies were asking about her GED or her wedding.

"Just what it sounds like," Jess snarked. "We were in a hell dimension for a month or so before I could get close enough to pick the locks on Buffy's chains. Once she was free, she rescued us from the demons holding everyone captive."

Buffy took over at that point, "Being held in Ken's hell helped me get over sending Angel to Acathla's hell better than a couple years of therapy. And yes, it was Angel who I had to stab with the sword, not Angelus. His soul came back just before Acathla did that whole 'sucking the world in' gig. The only way to stop it was to kill Angel."

Willow gasped in despair that her spell ended up hurting Buffy more.

Torn between concern and relief, Giles commented carefully, "You seem to be dealing with that rather well."

"A month of hell therapy," Buffy reminded him. "Didn't give me a lot of time to brood about it. And afterwards, Lily and Jess helped me heal emotionally as well as physically."

"Oh geez," Jess complained, "Don't go getting all Dr. Phil on me!"

"Isn't he just so sweet?" Buffy teased, standing on her toes to kiss his cheek. "Is it any wonder that I fell for him?"

Everyone else in the room was gobsmacked at the carefree way she was acting, given that her first love was back from hell.

She grew serious and turned to speak to Jess, "I think we'll have to stick around Sunnydale at least long enough to figure out what's the sitch with Angel's return."

"Kinda figured that when you called me last night about him being back," Jess said. "It's not as if we have anywhere to be," he assured her.

"You're leaving again?" Xander demanded to know.

Buffy lifted an eyebrow at the tone he was using. "We came back here to make sure the Hellmouth was under control. Well, that and making sure I wasn't still under suspicion for Kendra's murder. I mean, I didn't really think I was 'cause I was able to take my GED and I didn't think they'd allow a murder suspect to test," she semi-babbled.

"At first I was planning to stick around, but since you have Faith here, I don't need to stay in Sunnydale anymore," she explained reasonably. "Jess and I are going to do some cross-country slaying on the way to his uncle's town on the East Coast. I'd guess there are demons and vamps to slay on that side of the country, too."

Giles interjected, not wanting to lose his Slayer – or Buffy, the young woman he cared about – so soon, "Surely there's enough slaying for both of you here."

She shook her head, "I don't think I can fight alongside Faith for long. Sooner or later, we'd end up fighting each other. I noticed it with Kendra as well; I get…itchy around another Slayer…like I have to defend my territory or something."

"I suppose that could have something to do with you both being apex predators," Giles remarked, slipping into research-mode.

"It's not as if I wouldn't come back for an apocalypse or even just a visit," Buffy added. Her look turned teasing and she repeated a phrase that she used a couple years earlier, "If the apocalypse comes, beep me. Well, technically, it would be calling since I have a cell phone now, but you get the point. Is the intervention over now, 'cause I have to introduce my husband to my mom so she can threaten him properly."

* * *

A/N: Originally I had planned to make Joyce more of a bitch, but decided that I didn't need to for this story. Doesn't mean that I won't do it in the future, though.


	9. Chapter 9: Aug 27, 2013 –Natasha & Clint

**Chapter 9: August 27, 2013 – Natasha & Clint**

Chapter Summary: **The 'Love Interest' Part of the 2013 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts FaD** series. Turns out that Buffy is bisexual…and she likes her women dangerous, too.

Timeline: post-series for BtVS; post-movie for Avengers.

Challenge: for the livejournal 2013 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.

Warning: three-way relationship, but nothing graphic.

A/N: This is for one of my faithful reviewers on fanfiction net. Let me know if you have any ideas for fandoms that you'd like Buffy paired with (male or female).

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

* * *

**The Hyperion**

A group of tired, dirty people piled out of the bus and looked longingly at the building before them. A building filled with space, beds and hot showers…three things they'd missed a lot in the past months, but especially right now. They'd dropped off their seriously wounded – meaning they couldn't patch up the wounds themselves – at a nearby hospital and left a contact person there. In a few hours, somebody else would go relieve Giles and let him partake of the wonders of a bed and shower of his own.

But when they walked in the door, they were met by smartly-dressed woman holding a PDA and talking to somebody through her earphone. Was she one of those lawyer people from Wolfram & Hart that Angel warned them about?

When she saw them come in, she quickly said her goodbyes to the person on the phone and walked over to the group. "I have a message for Buffy Summers from Natasha and Clint?" she offered, wondering just which one of these women had the pair tied up in figurative knots. Only a few of them looked remotely old enough, unless there was something about the two that she didn't want to know.

A blonde woman stepped forward with a huge smile on her face, apparently not concerned about her blood-soaked shirt or jeans. The rest of the girls took off for the stairs since they figured it didn't concern them at the moment. Only Buffy, Dawn, Willow, Xander and Faith stuck around for the messages.

"They're okay, then?" Buffy asked worriedly. It had been a few months since she'd heard from them.

"Yes, and they wanted me to pass along two messages to you, but you'll only get them verbally. I refuse to give them any other way to somebody who I'm told could snap me like a twig," Pepper replied. "So consider yourself kissed because it's wonderful you are alive and hit for making them worry about you."

"Thanks. I consider myself smacked twice then," Buffy quipped. "What's up? I doubt you came just to deliver those messages…unless they are hurt or unavailable, and since you said they were okay already, I'm going with busy."

Pepper nodded. "They are just cleaning up a little mess on the East Coast, then catching the next flight out here tonight. I was sent to invite you and your colleagues to Stark Towers. After Natasha and Clint finished explaining why they thought the town of Sunnydale sank, Tony insisted on playing host for the people who most likely saved the world from some horrible evil."

"The First Evil," Buffy confirmed, "What all other evil supposedly comes from. I can't speak for the others, but as long as Stark promises not to turn me into a lab rat, I'd feel a lot more comfortable at his place than here. This is too close to being tied to Wolfram & Hart to me," she explained for the sake of the others.

"And you trust Tony Stark?" Willow asked.

"I trust Natasha and Clint, and they wouldn't allow him to make the offer unless they sort of trusted him," Buffy said. "And I only say 'sort of' because I'm not sure they completely trust anyone…even themselves."

"How well do you know these people?" Dawn asked, wondering who they were and why she had never heard of them before.

"I know them well enough that I considered sending you to them when Glory was after you," replied Buffy, shocking those who knew about the Hellgoddess.

"If you were willing to trust Dawn to them, why haven't you ever asked them to come help out with apocalypses?" Xander demanded.

Buffy quirked an eyebrow at him, not so much for his question, but for the tone he was using to ask it. "The same reason I never sent Dawn to them. They have their own lives and villains to fight. Unfortunately, their villains and ours seemed to work on the same schedule because they were always busy when I needed help the most and vice versa. I couldn't help with theirs because I was too busy with my own. Besides, Willow should be glad I didn't get their help last year."

"Why's that, B?" Faith finally joined the conversation.

"Because she'd be dead if they had," Buffy replied in a scarily certain voice.

Scoffing, Xander said, "I doubt that. She was superpowerful. She could even beat you up," he reminded her.

"That's because I cared about her," Buffy retorted. "They don't. They would have seen her as a threat and eliminate that threat as efficiently and safely as possible. She wouldn't have even known they were there."

"How did you meet them?" Willow asked, looking pale at the idea of somebody 'eliminating' her because she was a threat – even if that was very much true when she dove into Rack's kind of magick after Tara's death.

Buffy sat down on the couch and relaxed. The others, including Pepper, joined her because not even she knew that story. "It was the summer after graduation. Xander wasn't the only one who took a small trip; mine was just shorter and more painful." She chuckled at the memory. "I came across Clint first and helped him with some vampires. Normally, I'd say that I saved him, but I think he would have managed without me…just with a few more bruises at the end."

"I saw his bow and fell in love…with it, not him. I was still mourning Angel's leaving me at that point. He laughed at me when I asked if I could try it out, but then was shocked when I managed to do so. We decided on a friendly competition with our favorite bows, and he kicked my ass all over the place. But I did good enough that he spent time teaching me what he knew, not just about archery, but also about fencing and hand-to-hand fighting.

"The next time we ran into each other was when after Faith woke up and went to LA. I was so pissed off at Angel that I went to find some slaying action to burn off some energy. 'His town', my butt!" she snarled. "He was with Natasha and must have told her about me because she wanted a 'friendly' sparring match as well."

"I was all set to beat the crap out of her, only to find that she is like scary-talented when it comes to fighting and she doesn't mind fighting dirty to win. She grudgingly told me that with a few more years of training and real-world fights, I could be somewhat of a challenge for her."

Pepper gasped at that. "That's…a tremendous compliment coming from her!"

"Believe me, I've learned that," Buffy said. "Since then, they call me up when they're nearby and not busy so we can practice together. They've helped me with some minor Slayage stuff and I've helped them with a couple of their little things. But not real often because like I said before, our bad guys like to cause trouble at the same time."

Then she shocked them by telling them, "They're the reason we were able to keep the house after I came back. They offered to pay all of our bills so that I could concentrate on slaying, but my pride wouldn't let me take more than what was absolutely necessary. We called it payment for the times that I helped them, since they were getting paid by somebody. When they helped me, it was for free because I didn't charge anyone kill demons."

"I think the main reason I could never love Spike was because I was already in love," Buffy finally admitted out loud.

Pepper smiled. Assuming she was right, there would be two very happy people back at Stark Tower when they found out Buffy had her epiphany about them. Both of them realized they cared about Buffy when they heard she had died fighting Glory. Clint had always had a bit of a crush on Natasha, but it was unrequited until he had been taken by Loki.

It was a little staggering to be the person Natasha confided in about her feelings – or the fact she allowed herself to have them in the first place. After he had been rescued, Natasha came over to the Tower, raging mad and ranting about love. "Dammit! I love that arrow-fetished freak!" she ended up screaming. "How can I love not one, but two people! I don't love anyone!" she tried to convince herself.

"Well, whenever you're ready to go," Pepper prompted the blonde woman who would either solidify the relationship between Black Widow and Hawkeye or destroy it with her realization.

"Um, yeah," Buffy stammered a bit. "You wanna come with, Dawnie, or stay here?"

"Are you coming back?" Dawn asked, suddenly unsure about where she stood with her own sister.

Buffy reached over to hug her and said, "Of course I am. And I'd be willing to bet that you would be more than welcome to visit me there if you wanted to."

Pepper nodded and stood up.

"Have fun with your man, B," Faith called out, leaning back to take a quick nap before heading upstairs for a shower. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"

* * *

**Stark Tower**

**A week later…**

A group of concerned Sunnydale survivors demanded to see Buffy. They hadn't seen nor heard from her since she arrived at the Tower.

Tony was smirking as he informed them that once Dr. Banner declared her fit, Buffy said something to Natasha and Clint. Afterwards, nobody else in the building had seen them even once. Natasha and Clint each took an arm and dragged her to a room, sealed the door shut with a code that would take even Tony a week to crack, and hadn't come out since.

"JARVIS, you monitor all health signs in the tower, correct?" Pepper asked, hoping to give the people some kind of information on their friend and sister. "Are there any signs of distress from Natasha, Clint or Buffy?"

The computer voice of JARVIS assured them, "All parties are healthy and not being held captive - at least not against their will. Miss Romanov and Mr. Barton had planned for this once they heard Miss Summers was staying here, so they stocked the room with plenty of food and water, as well as other essentials to their…activities."

* * *

**Bonus scene:**

Hawkeye smirked back at Stark when the man tried to tease him about Black Widow and Buffy. "I have two gorgeous women who are probably the most dangerous women on the planet in love with me. Tell me how that's a bad thing," he replied a touch smugly.

It was Bruce who answered him, though, "You have the two most dangerous women on the planet in love with you...you'd better hope you never do anything to upset them or they'd make my other half look like a little, green puppy."

Tony started laughing and added, "You also better pray to any gods there might be that you never get them pregnant at the same time."

* * *

A/N: Hope this meets with your approval, manticore-gurl071134.


	10. Chapter 10: August 30, 2013 – Phoebe

**Chapter 10: August 30, 2013 – Phoebe**

Chapter Summary: **The 'Love Interest' Part of the 2013 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts FaD** series. Who knew that a 'doomed romance' competition could end like this?

Timeline: post-series for BtVS; post-season 4 for Charmed.

Challenge: for the livejournal 2013 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.

Warning: femslash, but nothing graphic.

A/N: For the last entry in this collection, I decided to make a reviewer and beta happy. Thanks for all the encouragement and ideas; sorry if I didn't get to your choices.

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

* * *

**Bar in San Francisco (not P3)**

Not happy to be back in California where _he_ was, Buffy quickly dealt with the Slayer House problem, did a quick patrol with the newbie and dropped her off at the house so she could hit a bar or two.

There were few things in the world that could drive Buffy to drink, but these days Angel topped that list. He was the undisputed _king_ of the mixed signals! One minute he's declaring his undying – literal, in his case – love for her; the next he's saying they can't be together for one reason or another. Over and freaking over for more than seven years now.

Each time she took the chance to let him back in, he ripped her heart to pieces. She was starting to wonder who was more evil: Angel or Angelus.

Case in point, he flew to Rome with Spike because he heard that she was involved with the Immortal – a lie that Andrew got smacked for – and wanted to rescue her…and possibly declare his love again.

She thought that was very romantic, so when she finished her business with the Immortal, she flew to LA to tell Angel she was finished baking. What does she find when she gets there? Angel making out with some werewolf chick.

Not that she had anything against most werewolves, and Nina seemed like a decent one, but he was dating Nina when he came to Rome! What the hell kind of game was he playing?

"Guy trouble?" a voice asked from her right. She turned to find a pretty brunette a few years older than her looking back. "I recognize the look…mostly from my mirror in the morning."

Buffy reached out with her Slayer senses – which were enhanced with Willow's activation spell so now she could sense magick as well as demons – and felt the 'taste' of magick from the woman. She couldn't tell if the woman was good or bad, and so decided to play along for a while until she got a better idea. "I bet mine is worse than yours," she challenged.

Phoebe almost snorted her drink at that. This woman actually thought she could have worse guy trouble than Cole? "You're on. We'll each say something about our guys and whoever has the better complaint gets a free drink, courtesy of the loser. My name's Phoebe, by the way."

"Buffy…I'll go first," Buffy said, trying to think of complaints that didn't mention Slayers or vampires. "Mine took off during the night after the first time we had sex…my first time ever."

Phoebe appeared stumped. Without mentioning magick, she couldn't think of a sexual issue she had with Cole. After a few more seconds of silence, she gave up and said, "Okay, you win that one. My first time with him was wonderful." She held up a hand for the bartender and ordered them a couple shots of flavored vodka. "My turn. Mine is a lawyer."

Buffy smirked, "My runs a law firm."

Damn! Phoebe was sort of regretting the competition now. She knew her ex was worse than Buffy's but without being able to mention the supernatural, it was impossible to prove. "Oh! He's tried to kill my sisters dozens of times!"

Coughing at the startled look on the bartender's face, Buffy lowered her voice a little and suggested, "Maybe we should take our competition to a more private table?"

Phoebe's face flushed when she realized what she just declared loudly in a bar, almost cheerfully sounding. "Maybe."

Once they found a quiet-ish table, Buffy answered, "Mine killed one friend and tortured another."

"God!" Phoebe exclaimed. Maybe this woman did have worse tasted than she did.

Before they could continue, Buffy felt several vampires across the bar about to leave with their meals for the night. She could probably defeat them on her own, but not without risking the life of one of the potential victims. "Crap! Listen, I need to take a risk and trust you with something. I can feel you're a witch; my question is are you good or evil?"

Phoebe's eyes widened in shock. "What?" She immediately reached out with her empathy and attempted to read Buffy's emotions. She sensed anger, concern, the tiniest amount of fear, and attraction? Whoa! That was unexpected.

"There's a bunch of vampires over there about to make snacks of some people and I need help to stop them. Will you help me or them?" Buffy persisted.

"You protect the innocent?" Phoebe couldn't help but ask. Oh god, Piper and Paige would kill her for taking a chance like this, but if Buffy was being honest – which she was almost sure she was – then she had to help. "Of course I'll help you. Do you know which one is the queen?"

"Huh? I don't know what you're talking about with the queen thing, but it takes a stake through the heart, decapitation or fire…unless you happen to have some holy water on you," Buffy checked.

"Maybe there's more than one kind of vampire," Phoebe murmured almost to herself. "Alright, we'll go with staking, then. Where are they?"

Buffy pointed to a closing door. "Heading to the alley."

They practically ran across the bar to catch up with the vampires. Once the fighting began and the victims ran away, Buffy kept one eye on the baddies and one on Phoebe. She was a pretty good fighter for a non-Slayer. She clearly was no stranger to fighting, even if she was a little clumsy on the slaying part.

As the dust settled from the last vampire, Buffy asked, "Do you want to head back in or find some place even more private to talk about what just happened?"

"The second thing," Phoebe managed to say. Now the sense of attraction from Buffy was almost becoming a neon sign to her empathy. "I can't think of a way to ask this without sounding insulting, but what are you?"

Buffy chuckled, remembering all the times when she quipped something snarky to that question. "I'm human, but enhanced to fight demons and especially vampires. Have you ever heard of the Slayer?"

Phoebe shook her head. "Doesn't sound familiar, and we just looked up vampires not too long ago because somebody I cared about was turning into one."

"What? What do you mean by that? In my experience, once you've been turned, you'll become one within like 24-72 hours," Buffy explained.

"Maybe it's the different vampires thing again," Phoebe theorized. "As long as we killed the queen before my friend made her first kill, she'd turn back into a human."

"Sounds like there's some missing info in our research records," Buffy complained. "That's not good. Where are we going, anyway?"

"My sister's club; she has a private section that we can talk in," Phoebe said. Plus she wouldn't mind getting her sisters and Leo's input on Buffy.

* * *

**P3**

Feeling a little playful now, Buffy suggested they change the terms of their competition. She figured that the truly horrible stuff would be coming out now that they both knew that the other person knew about the supernatural. "Instead of drinks, let's say the loser has to give one piece of information about their lives…within reason."

"Now you're going down!" Phoebe predicted, startled when Buffy blushed. Then she realized how that might have sounded and quickly stuttered, "Cole was sent to spy on us for his evil boss."

"Okay, you win. Angel originally came to help me, not hurt me," Buffy allowed. "I've been a Slayer since I was 15 years old. Angel was a vampire with a soul."

"Cole was a half-demon," Phoebe replied. "Tie?" Buffy nodded and she said, "Umm, I faked vanquishing him from my sisters because I was in love with him."

"I hid the fact that he was back from hell from my friends for the same reason, plus I felt guilty for sending him there," Buffy added sadly.

Phoebe thought for a moment, then said, "I think yours is slightly worse than mine, but not by a lot. My sisters and I were born witches but didn't have our powers unbound until about 4 years ago. Cole tried to turn me evil with a demonic baby."

"Yeah, you win that one. The only baby Angel had was with his evil ex-girlfriend, the vampire who sired him," Buffy conceded. "I've died twice."

They kept going back and forth for an hour or so until Phoebe said, "Cole was once the Source of All Evil, Ruler of the Underworld," she clarified when Buffy looked confused.

"Huh, Angel's law firm is evil's lawyers…literally. They make it easier for demons to spread their evil without getting in trouble with humans. They also take on the worst of the worst human criminals, too."

"He made me his dark queen," Phoebe countered.

"He tried to suck the world into hell," Buffy shot back.

"I've had to vanquish him a couple times for real," Phoebe said.

"You win. I've only had to slay Angel once. But it was the non-evil version I had to slay because his evil side was gone when I had to choose between him and the world," Buffy answered. "I'd like to see what it's like to kiss you."

"Cole was evil when we vanquished him," Phoebe admitted. She wasn't sure she could take killing Cole when he wasn't evil. "I wouldn't mind finding out either."

* * *

**At the bar**

"How much has Phoebe had to drink?" Paige asked as she watched her sister kiss the woman she introduced as a vampire Slayer.

Piper wasn't looking in that direction, so she didn't see the same thing. "Nothing while she was here, but I don't know about earlier. She wasn't happy about Cole when she went out. Why?" She turned around and saw her sister sucking Buffy's face off, metaphorically-speaking. "Oh my god!"

"They look good together, don't they?" Leo remarked.

"Perv!" Paige exclaimed while Piper smacked his arm.

"You're sleeping on the couch tonight, mister," Piper said with a glare.

Poor Leo didn't understand why they were so angry with him. He just liked the relaxed way Phoebe acted around Buffy, and if Buffy was truly a Slayer, it was a good thing for the sisters because she was a Champion as well, at least according to the Elders when he orbed up there for information earlier.

* * *

A/N: Today's going to be hell at work, so I thought I'd try to get this out quickly. Hope you like it.


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